Category: 2022

Ukraine’s prime minister, finance officials to visit Washington next week – Reuters

 10:54,

YEREVAN, APRIL 16, ARMENPRESS. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and top Ukrainian finance officials will visit Washington next week during the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, Reuters reported citing sources familiar with the plans.

The Ukrainian government officials will meet with finance officials of G7 countries and also take part in the April 21 World Bank discussion on Ukraine.

The IMF could revise its global economic growth projections after the talks.

 11:01,

YEREVAN, APRIL 16, ARMENPRESS. A merchant fuel ship heading from Equatorial Guinea to Malta sank off the coast of Gabes in Tunisia on Friday, Reuters reported citing two security sources.

The ship sank due to bad weather.

All seven crew members were rescued by the navy.

The ship carried one thousand tons of fuel and sent a distress call seven miles away from Gabes.

Authorities are working to avoid an environmental disaster and reduce repercussions, the environment ministry said in a statement.

18 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

 11:07,

YEREVAN, APRIL 16, ARMENPRESS. 18 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed over the last 24 hours, bringing the cumulative total number of confirmed cases to 422,747, the Armenian Ministry of Healthcare said.

No new deaths were recorded and the death toll stood at 8621.

14 people recovered (total recoveries: 410,434).

2631 tests were administered (total tests: 3,013,643).

The number of active cases stood at 2011.

 11:46,

YEREVAN, APRIL 16, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Nuclear Power Plant’s power unit N2 is undergoing a planned annual preventive repair. The repair began 00:30 April 16 and will last 73 days, the plant’s administration said.

Highly experienced experts from Russia, Croatia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and other countries have joined the NPP crew and specialists from the Armenian Nuclear Safety Regulatory Committee for the maintenance work.

The power unit N2 is scheduled to be re-launched on June 28.

 12:56,

YEREVAN, APRIL 16, ARMENPRESS. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that between 2500 or 3000 Ukrainian troops were killed in action during the fighting against Russian forces.

Zelensky told CNN’s Jake Tapper that there are about 10,000 Ukrainian troops who have been injured and that it’s “hard to say how many will survive.”

Civilian casualties are more difficult to quantify, he said.

“It is very difficult to talk about civilians, since south of our country, where the towns and cities are blocked — Kherson, Berdyansk, Mariupol further east, and the area to the east where Volnovakha is — we just don’t know how many people have died in that area that is blocked,” Zelensky said.

According to Zelensky Russia’s military casualty stands at 19,000 to 20,000. However Russia has so far acknowledged 1,351 military casualties.

 16:07,

YEREVAN, APRIL 16, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani armed forces have entirely pulled back to their initial positions near the Seysulan settlement of Artsakh’s Martakert region, the Artsakh authorities said.

The operative-tactical situation in other parts of the line of contact is calm, the authorities said in a statement published through the official Artsakh InfoCenter.

On April 15 the Azerbaijani military breached the line of contact in a neutral zone near Seysulan in an attempt to improve positions by advancing troops.

Later on the same day the Azerbaijani troops agreed to pull back as a result of negotiations launched by the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Artsakh.

Pashinyan attends inauguration of new police force in Gyumri

 16:31,

YEREVAN, APRIL 16, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited the city of Gyumri for the inauguration of the new patrol police service of the Shirak Province.

Police Chief of Armenia Vahe Ghazaryan, Deputy Prime Minister Hambardzum Matevosyan, Defense Minister Suren Papikyan, National Security Service Director Armen Abazyan, Justice Minister Karen Andreasyan, Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Gnel Sanosyan, Ombudsperson Kristinne Grigoryan, MP, Head of the Parliamentary Committee on Defense and Security Affairs Andranik Kocharyan, State Revenue Committee Chairman Rustam Badasyan, EU Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin, US Ambassador Lynne Tracy were among the attendees.

The prime minister delivered remarks, awarded distinguished officers and viewed the new police cruisers.

 11:09,

YEREVAN, APRIL 15, ARMENPRESS. The first Easter Festival will take place on April 17 in Yerevan.

The event is organized by the Children’s Special Creative Center, with support from the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport.

The festival will take place near the Saint Anna Church and Saint Katoghike Church in central Yerevan.

The Easter Festival will feature musical performances and presentation of handicrafts made by children.

The symbolic color of the festival is red, and organizers asked attendants to wear any red clothing or red accessory if possible.

 11:14,

YEREVAN, APRIL 15, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan held a meeting on April 15 with the Ambassador of Lithuania to Armenia Inga Stanytė-Toločkienė, the presidency said in a press release.

President Khachaturyan and Ambassador Stanytė-Toločkienė both expressed conviction that through joint efforts they will contribute to the expansion and further deepening of the Armenian-Lithuanian agenda. They underscored that the two countries have big potential for cooperation in economic, high-tech, educational and cultural sectors.

 12:26,

YEREVAN, APRIL 15, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signaled the launch of the apartment renovation program and expressed hope that it will become a major economic project.

 “Since Soviet times, there are cases of apartments being built especially in provinces and their huge part simply not being used and becoming abandoned.The second issue that we must focus on is that during this period the demand for rental apartments abruptly increased in the country and prices have gone up. In addition, well-known circumstances brought uncertainties for our citizens who were working seasonal foreign jobs, and we thought the following: we will launch a state program that will offer our citizens to take subsidized loans and rebuild their apartments with the condition that 20-30% of these expenditures will be used for energy saving in those apartments,” Pashinyan said.

He said they expect citizens to pay less payments for electricity and gas in the mid-term and long-term and that this investment will justify itself.

“We also expect that with this loan program citizens will be able to rent out the unused parts of their apartments and also develop supply in the tourism sector. We also expect that as part of this program we will ensure with potential jobs our compatriots who are traveling for seasonal work abroad, if they’d be unable to do so,” Pashinyan said.

“Under the first phase we will issue ten thousand such loans and evaluate the course,” he added, noting that if targeted goals are reached in a year the program will be continuous. “A huge part of our housing stock is worn out and we hope that with this we will make a significant investment in both apartments, the economy, small businesses and overcoming poverty,” he said.